PRINCETON",     N.     J. 


Shelf.. 


crie.Jen^ea  /uO^.-^  Cyk^^uC^^ CyO  i/w-^^^^ 

BV  4070  .S26  T8  1897^^ 
San  Francisco  Theological 

Seminary. 
1872-1897:  twenty-fifth 


'i^^SP' 


mmmw 


187/     x:   ?£     1897 
TWENTYxFIFTH  ANNIVERSARY 

7 

SAN  FRANCISCO  :x  :x  :x  :x  :x 
Theological  Seminary 


Of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  United  States  of 
America. 


APRIL  29,  1897  :x  :x  :x  :^c  :^c 

San  Anselmo,  Cal, 


^ 


SAN   RAFAEI,,  CAL,. 

MARIN     JOURNAL      PRINT, 
1897. 


Iprooramme^ 


Cai,vary  Church,  San   Francisco,  April  29,  1S97, 


By  order  of  the  Synod  and  the  Directors  of  the  San  Francisco  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  the  Faculty  arranged  the  following  programme  in 
observance  of  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  Seminary  : 

Prof.  Henry  C.  Minton,  D.  D.,  Chairman  of  the  Faculty,  Presiding 

Hymn  .......... 

Reading  of  the  Scriptures  ....... 

Rev.  George  C.  Giffen; 
Moderator  of  the  Svnod  of  California. 


Prayer 


Hvmn 


Rev.  Thomas  Fraser,  D.  D. 
Formerly  Stuart  Professor  of  Sj'stematic  Theology 


Address,  "  The  Making  of  the  Seminary  " 

Prof.  William  Alexander,  D.  D., 
California  Professor  of  Church  History. 

Congratulatory  Address  ..... 

Prof.  George  Mooar,  D.  D., 
of  the  Pacific  Theological  vSeminary  (Congregational) 

Address,  "  A  Forward  Look,"  .... 

Prof.  Robert  Mackenzie,  D.  D., 
Montgomery  Professor  of  Apologetics  and  Missions. 

Hymn 

Benediction  .... 


^be  JFacult^. 


REV.    WILLIAM    ALEXANDER,  D.  D. 
California  Professor  of  Church  History, 

REV.  ROBERT  MACKENZIE,  D.  D., 
Montgomery  Professor  of  Apologetics  and  Missions, 

REV.  THOS.  FRANKLIN  DAY,  D,  D. 
Gray  Professor  of  Hebrew  Exegesis  and  Old  Testament  Literature. 

REV.  HENRY  COLLIN  MINTON,  D.  D.; 
Stuart  Professor  of  Systematic  Theology, 

REV.  WARREN  HALL  LANDON,  D.  D., 
Ladd  Professor  of  Practical  Theology, 

REV.  JOHN  HENRY  KERR,  D.  D.. 
Professor  of  Greek  Exegesis  and  New  Testament  Literature. 

PROF.  CHARLES  GURDON  BUCK, 

Severin  Instructor  in  Vocal  Culture  and  Sacred  Music, 
2130  Post  St.,  San  Francisoo. 


©fficers  ot  tbe  Jfacult^  for  1896*97. 


Rev.  Henry  C.  Minton,  D.  D.,  Chairman, 
Rev.  Warren  H.  Landon,  D.  D.,  Clerk, 
Rev.  Thos.  F.  Day,  D.  D.,  Librarian, 

Mr.  Wm.  ChaIvMERS  Gunn,  Assistant  Librarian. 


Dr.    Ai^exandkr   represented  the  founders  of  the  Seminary,  being 
himself  a  member  of  the  original  Faculty. 

Dr.  Mackenzie  represented  those  who  have  come  later. 

Dr.  Mooar  represented  the  Pacific  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Con- 
gregational Church. 


^be  fiS^al^inG  of  the  Seminar^^* 


Address  of  REV.  WILLIAM  ALEXANDER,  D.  D.  California  Professor 
of  Church   History. 

The  part  assigned  to  me  in  these  exercises  is 
the  makino-  of  the  Seminary,  and  I  wish  it  could  have 
been  assigned  to  some  one  else,  because,  having  been 
apart  of  the  Seminary  from  its  first  inception,  I  shall 
be  compelled  to  refer  to  myself  much  more  frequently 
than  may  be  agreeable  to  5'ou  or  to  me.  Hoping 
therefore  that  you  will  excuse  me  in  this,  I  proceed  at 
once  to  enter  upon  my  subject. 

The  establishment  of  a  Theological  Seminary  for 
the  Presbyterian  Church  had  been  in  many  minds,  and 
talked  of  more  or  less  for  a  long  time.  The  late  Dr. 
Scott  told  me  on  one  occasion  that  when  he  first  en- 
tered the  Golden  Gate  he  had  in  his  mind  then  a 
college  or  colleges  and  a  Theological  Seminary  for  this 
Coast.  And  he  actually  began  the  work  by  founding 
the  old  City  College,  wliich.  under  Dr.  Geo.  Burrowes, 
and  some  others,  was  for  a  time  very  prosperous.  But 
when  the  high  school  in  the  city  began  teaching  the 
higher  branches,  and  the  State  University  gave  college 
instruction  free,  the  City  College  could  not  prosper 
without  endowment,  which,  unfortunately,  was  never 
provided,  and  the  college  failed,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
for  .no  college  in  this  age  can  exist  without  endow- 
ment. 

I  came  to  this  Coast  in  November,  ISGO,  on  a  call 


to  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  San  Jose.  At  a 
special  meeting  of  the  Synod  of  the  Pacific,  as  it  then 
was,  called  to  meet  by  the  Pte-union  Assembly  at 
Pittsburg,  in  the  month  of  December,  to  readjust  the 
Old  and  New  School  Presb3^teries,  and  to  fix  the 
boundaries  of  each  of  them,  the  subject  of  a  Theologi- 
cal Seminary  was  discussed  with  much  interest,  and 
Dr.  Burrowes  announced  at  that  time  his  purpose  to 
donate  his  fine  library  to  such  an  institution,  whenever 
it  should  be  commenced.  Still  nothing  definite  was 
proposed  or  attempted  with  reference  to  its  practical 
realization  at  that  time. 

About  the  first  of  June,  1871,  I  resigned  my 
charge  of  the  first  Presbyterian  Church  of  San  Jose,  to 
accept  an  invitation  to  take  charge  of  the  City  College, 
located  at  that  time  on  the  southeast  corner  of  Geary 
and  Stockton  streets,  and  entered  on  the  duties  of  that 
office  on  the  5th  of  July  following.  In  one  of  the 
classes  were  a  number  of  young  men  preparing  for  the 
gospel  ministry.  One  evening,  as  I  sat  in  my  room, 
it  came  into  my  mind  like  an  inspiration,  that  now 
was  the  time  to  start  the  Theological  Seminary.  Act- 
ing upon  the  suggestion,  I  drew  a  chair  up  to  the 
table,  and  wrote  out  the  Plan  that  night,  and  left  it  in 
my  dravv^er  for  a  few  days.  I  had  the  constitutions  of 
several  of  the  Seminaries  of  our  church  before  me, 
but  naturally  was  guided  most  by  that  of  Princeton, 
my  own  Alma  Mater,  making  such  changes  in  it  as 
seemed  to  be  required  by  our  peculiar  circumstances. 

I  never  was  vain  enough  to  imagine  that  I  could 
myself  alone  establish  a  Theological  Seminary.  After 
thinking  it  over  a  little  while  longer  I  took  the  Plan  I 
had  written  to  Rev.  Dr.  Scott.  He  read  it  carefully, 
and  then  gave  it  his  unqualified  approval,  and  pledged 
me  all  the  assistance  in  his  power.  Nobody  but  our- 
selves knew  anything  about  it  until  near  the  time  for 


the  meeting  of  the  Synod  in  October,  1871.  I  then 
prepared  an  overture  to  the  Synod  and  procured  the 
signatures  of  a  number  of  leading  ministers  and  elders 
on  the  subject  of  a  Theological  Seminary.  Dr.  Scott 
drew  up  a  similar  overture,  and  had  it  adopted  by  the 
Presbytery  of  San  Francisco. 

In  due  time  the  Synod  of  the  Pacific  met  in  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Oakland,  and  the  over- 
tures came  up  in  order.  After  a  little  hesitation  the 
Synod  agreed  to  appoint  a  committee,  as  requested, 
to  report  a  Plan  for  the  proposed  Seminary.  The 
Moderator,  Rev.  W.  W.  Brier,  of  Centerville,  appointed 
a  committee  on  the  Plan,  of  which  I  was  not  a  mem- 
ber. As  I  had  the  Plan  in  my  pocket,  the  committee 
might  have  been  embarrassed,  had  not  some  one 
moved  that  I  should  be  added  to  the  committee,  which 
was  done  by  a  vote  of  the  Synod.  All  was  then  plain 
sailing  ;  the  Plan  was  read  to  the  committee,  and  by 
it  adopted  unanimously,  and  reported  back  to  the 
Synod  in  less  thnn  half  an  hour. 

There  was  some  discussion  on  its  adoption  ;  no 
fault  was  found  with  the  Plan,  but  some  of  the  more 
cautious  and  slow- moving  brethren  thought  the  whole 
movement  was  premature  ;  that  we  had  no  adequate 
means  of  preparing  students,  and  no  funds  in  sight  for 
buildings  or  endowments.  It  was  answered  that  we 
had  two  institutions  of  college  grade,  one  in  the  city, 
and  the  other  near  it  ;  and  there  were  then  three  or 
four  acadeinies  in  the  State  under  the  control  of  minis- 
ters or  elders  of  our  own  church,  and  there  were 
already  five  or  six  young  men  in  preparation  for  the 
Seminary.  As  to  the  lack  of  funds,  it  was  replied 
that  we  probably  never  would  have  any  until  we  made 
a  beginning,  and  that  if  we  waited  for  twenty  years 
there  would  still  be  some  to  think  it  premature.  The 
sequel  showed  that  the  objectors  came  perillously  near 


being  right.  But  the  Synod  adopted  tiie  Plan  by  a 
unanimous  vote,  and  proceeded  to  appoint  the  first 
Board  of  Directors.  The  Board  met  in  a  room  of  the 
old  City  College  on  the  7th  day  of  November,  and 
organized  by  electing  Dr.  Scott  president  and  R.  J. 
Trumbull  secretary.  As  the  new  institution  had  not  a 
dollar  of  money,  their  first  act  was  to  take  up  a  col- 
lection to  bu}^  a  record  book.  My  idea  was  not  to 
elect  a  Faculty  at  that  time,  but  to  appoint  a  fiscal 
agent  to  raise  money ;  but  others,  especially  the 
elders  on  the  Board,  objected  to  that,  and  insisted  that 
the  only  way  to  do  anything  was  to  elect  a  Faculty, 
and  to  start  out  in  a  way  to  show  that  we  meant  busi- 
ness. They  therefore  proceeded  to  elect  Professors. 
Dr.  Scott  was  elected  to  the  Chair  of  Logic  and  Sys- 
tematic Theology,  Dr.  D.  W.  Poor  was  elected  to  the 
Chair  of  Church  History  and  Church  Government, 
while  the  Chair  of  Hellenistic  Greek  and  New  Testa- 
ment Exegesis  was  assigned  to  me,  together  with 
Homiletics.  At  this  point  the  members  of  the  Board 
from  the  east  side  of  the  Bay,  began  to  look  at  their 
watches,  and  said  they  would  have  to  go  in  order  to 
"  catch  the  boat,"  a  very  common  phrase  at  that  time, 
when  boats  did  not  run  as  often  as  they  do  now.  The 
meeting,  therefore  adjourned,  and  left  tlie  Faculty 
incomplete.  The  second  meeting  of  the  Board  of 
Directors  was  held  in  the  same  place,  on  the  4th  day 
of  December,  1871,  and  the  election  of  tlie  Faculty 
was  completed  by  the  appointu'ent  of  Rev.  Geo. 
Burrowes  to  the  Chair  of  the  Hebrew  Language  and 
Exegesis.  But  as  the  young  men  were  not  yet  ready 
for  that,  Dr.  Burrowes  did  not  enter  upon  the  duties 
of  his  Chair  until  the  next  year.  They  continued  their 
studies  in  Latin  and  Greek  and  in  Psycology  and 
Ethics  under  me  in  the  City  College,  and  they  took 
Logic  with  Dr.  Scott. 


13 

This  is  the  true  story  of  the  origin  of  our  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  We  had  a  Board  of  Directors,  a 
Faculty  and  students,  there  was  no  lack  of  faith  and 
courage,  and  there  was  a  good  deal  of  very  earnest 
prayer.  We  had  a  name,  but  not  a  local  habitation, 
and  we  had  no  money.  I  gave  up  a  couple  of  rooms 
in  the  City  College  to  the  students,  and  Dr.  Scott  had 
rooms  fitted  up  in  the  old  St.  John's  Church,  then 
located  on  Post  street  near  Mason  ;  and  thus  we  con- 
tinued for  the  next  three  years. 

The  first  Faculty  remained  unchanged  for  the  next 
five  years.  The  question  naturally  arises  :  How  were 
these  Professors  supported  without  money  ?  The 
answer  is  that  they  supported  themselves,  giving  their 
time  and  labor  gratuitously.  Dr.  Scott  was  pastor  of 
St.  John's,  Dr.  Poor  was  pastor  for  a  part  of  the  time, 
of  the  First  Church  of  Oakland,  Dr.  Burrowes  was  in 
charge  of  University  Mound  College,  and  I  retained 
charge  of  the  City  College  until  my  resignation 
in  1875.  After  Dr.  Poor  resigned  his  charge  of 
the  Oakland  Church  he  had  a  pretty  hard  time  until 
he  went  to  Philadelphia  as  Corresponding  Secretary 
of  the  Board  of  Education.  As  I  had  enlisted  for  the 
war,  I  was  not  unwilling  to  endure  hardness  as  a  good 
soldier,  and  I  did  endure  much  privation,  hardship 
and  self-denial.  But,  as  such  experiences  are  common 
to  the  founders  of  new  institutions,  I  endured  no  more 
than  I  anticipated,  and  will  not  detail  my  trials  now. 

It  must  not  be  understood  that  we  ever  expected  to 
establish  the  Seminary  without  money.  In  less  than 
a  year,  March  18th,  1872,  Rev.  W.  W.  Brier  was  ap- 
pointed agent  to  raise  funds.  At  first  he  reported 
good  success,  but  as  a  misunderstanding  between  him 
and  the  Board  soon  emerged,  he  gave  up  his  agency, 
and  very  little  was  realized.  On  the  16tli  of  Septem- 
ber, 1872,  Rev.  R.  V.  Dodge,    then   pastor  of  the  First 


14 

Church  in  this  city,  was  elected  assistant  in  Church 
History,  the  duties  of  which  he  performed  acceptably 
for  some  time. 

On  the  28th  of  October,  1872,  Rev.  Dr.  T.  M. 
Cunningham  was  elected  Financial  Agent  and  went 
East  to  raise  money.  After  the  most  untiring  efforts 
he  succeeded  in  getting  subscriptions  in  Pittsburg, 
Baltimore  and  Philadelphia,  to  the  amount  of  fifty 
thousand  dollars  on  condition  that  New  York  would 
give  a  like  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars.  He 
then  went  on  to  New  York,  met  the  ministers 
there,  and  it  was  agreed  among  them,  that  he 
should  have  the  required  a.mount.  Arrangements 
were  made  for  a  public  meeting,  and  he  could,  as 
he  afterward  said,  almost  put  his  hand  on  the 
money,  when  he  received  a  telegram  from  San 
Francisco,  respecting  his  church,  which  alarmed  him, 
and  he  left  everything  and  started  for  home  at  once. 
Of  course  the  whole  thing  proved  a  failure.  He  went 
back  the  next  year  but  could  do  nothing,  and  of  all 
those  subscriptions  nothing  was  ever  paid,  except  that 
of  Mr.  William  Thaw,  of  Pittsburg,  who  paid  his,  not- 
withstanding the  condition  of  it  had  failed.  We  were 
deeply  disappointed  at  the  outcome  of  this  business, 
and  no  man  felt  it  more  deeply  than  Dr.  Cunningham 
afterwards  did  himself. 

We  worked  on  in  very  much  tlie  same  way  until 
August  14th,  1876,  when  Dr.  Poor  resigned  in  order  to 
accept  the  position  of  vSecretary  of  the  Board  of 
Education  in  Philadelphia.  The  Doctor's  connection 
with  the  Seminary  had  become  very  unpleasant  and 
trying,  but  it  is  due  to  him  to  say  here,  that  he  was 
a  competent  instructor,  a  good  scholar,  and  a  very  in- 
telligent man. 

In  looking  about  for  a  successor  to  Dr.  Poor,  all 
eves  were  turned  to  Rev.    Dr.  Jas.  Eells,  then  pastor 


15 

of  the  First  Church  of  Oakland,  and  he  was  elected 
on  the  14th  of  Augast,  1876,  at  the  same  meetmg  at 
which  Dr,  Poor's  resignation  was  accepted.  But  as 
Dr.  Eells  had  no  taste  for  Church  History,  and  desired 
Apologetics,  it  became  necessar}^,  in  order  to  accom- 
modate him,  to  rearrange  some  of  the  Chairs.  Ac- 
cordingly Hellenistic  Greek  and  New  Testament 
Exegesis  was  transferred  to  Dr.  Burrowes,  and  Church 
History  with  the  General  Introduction  to  the  Scrip- 
tures was  assigned  to  me.  During  the  holiday  recess, 
in  the  winter  of  1876-7,  Dr.  Eells  went  East,  and 
secured  ten  thousand  dollars,  which,  with  some  other 
money  the  Board  had  received,  was  used  to  purchase 
the  lot  at  121  Haight  street,  on  the  16th  of  April, 
1877.  Plans  for  a  building  were  approved  on  the  26th 
of  April,  and  the  building  completed  and  occupied  on 
the  6th  of  September,  1877.  The  Seminary  then  had 
a  local  habitation  as  well  as  a  name,  albeit  a  very 
humble  one.  This  building,  which  we  ahvays  re- 
garded as  only  the  temporary  home  of  the  Seminary, 
was  occupied  until  the  summer  of  1892.  It  was  after- 
wards sold  to  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  and  has 
been  ever  since  occupied  by  the  Japanese  Mission  of 
our  Church. 

Dr.  Eells  resigned  his  chair  on  the  28th  of 
August,  to  accept  a  similar  one  in  Lane  Seminary,  and 
on  the  same  day  Rev.  John  Hemphill,  the  popular 
pastor  of  Calvary  Church,  was  elected  to  the  vacant 
chair.  Dr.  Eells  was  a  model  professor  of  Sacred 
Rhetoric  and  Pastoral  Theology.  His  influence  and 
bearing  on  the  students  was  very  fine,  and  his  charac- 
ter and  standing  in  the  Church  at  large  made  him  a 
valuable  accession  to  any  Seminary.  He  never  lost 
interest  in  this  Seminary.  He  spent  a  summer  vaca- 
tion on  the  Coast  as  Financial  Agent,  and  had  intended 
to  return    to   us  very  soon,  when    his  phms  were  ar- 


i6 


rested  by  his  sudden  and  lamented  death.  Rev.  Mr. 
Hemphill,  now  Dr.  Hemphill,  was  a  young  gentleman 
of  high  standing  and  brilliant  pulpit  talents.  His 
work  in  the  Seminary  was  in  a  high  degree  satisfac- 
tory, but  was  cut  too  short  by  his  acceptance  of  a 
call  to  the  West  Arch  Street  Church  in  Philadelphia. 
The  Doctor  has  returned  to  this  city,  and  is  again 
leading  Calvary  Church  into  a  larger  success.  Dr„ 
Hemphill  resigned  his  chair  on  the  26th  of  April, 
1883,  when  the  duties  of  his  chair  devolved  upon  me, 
until  I  was  relieved  by  the  election  of  Dr.  A.  L. 
Lindsley,  of  Portland,  on  the  10th  of  August,  1886. 

In  this  way  the  Seminary  was  carried  on  for  more 
than  eleven  years,  without  one  cent  of  endow- 
ment, all  of  us  laboring  without  compensation.  But 
on  the  16th  day  of  December,  1880,  fifty  thousand 
dollars  were  received  from  Mr.  R.  L.  Stuart,  of  New 
York,  as  a  permanent  endowment  of  the  chair  of  Sys- 
tematic Theology,  and  is  now  known  as  the  Stuart 
Professorship.  That  was  the  first  step  towards  an  en- 
dowment. Dr.  Scott,  the  incumbent  of  the  Stuart 
chair,  was  generous  enough  to  take  only  half  the  inter- 
est on  the  endowment,  and  leave  the  remainder  to  be 
divided  among  the  rest  of  us.  But  none  of  us  received 
the  entire  income  from  that  endowment  for  a  long 
time.  As  there  was  no  fund  for  defraying  the  contin- 
gent expenses  of  the  Seminary,  Mr.  Stephen  Franklin, 
then  treasurer,  and  one  of  the  kindest  and  best  of  men, 
first  paid  all  the  incidental  expenses,  and  then  divided 
the  remainder  as  above  stated.  The  share  of  each  of 
us  did  not  amount  to  very  much,  but  it  was  better 
than  nothing,  and  we  were  grateful  to  Dr.  Scott,  for 
he  might  have  taken  it  all,  had  he  been  so  disposed. 

In  the  meantime  Dr.  Scott's  health  began  to  be 
seriously  impaired.  On  two  or  three  occasions  I  was 
obliged  to  take  his  place  at  commencements  on  account 


17 

of  his  illness,  and  once,  at  least,  had  to  examine  his 
classes  for  him  at  the  close  of  the  term.  Then  he 
would  get  better,  and  still  labored  on  without  "bating 
a  jot  of  heart  or  hope,"  even  when  he  should  have 
taken  rest;  but  he  would  always  work  as  long  as  he 
could  keep  out  of  bed.  I  remember  on  one  occasion, 
when  we  were  sitting  by  the  fire  in  the  study  in  the 
old  St.  John's,  as  we  often  did,  trying  to  devise  ways 
and  means  to  keep  the  Seminary  going,  he  said  to  me, 
"I  have  never  lost  faith  in  the  Seminary;  it  will  suc- 
ceed; I  shall  not  live  to  see  it;  but  you  probably  will." 
Alas,  what  a  true  prophet  he  then  was;  and  the  fulfill- 
ment came  sooner,  probably,  than  either  of  us  expected. 
In  a  very  few  years  after  that  he  was  compelled  to 
go  to  bed,  in  what  proved  to  be  his  last  sickness.  I 
knew  that  he  was  ill,  for  I  had  been  hearing  his 
classes  for  some  time,  but  had  no  thought  of  any  fatal 
termination  of  his  sickness,  until  one  day  I  received 
word  from  him  that  he  wanted  to  see  me  about 
something,  and  I  called  to  see  him  the  same  after- 
noon. He  seemed  very  glad  to  see  me,  and  I  saw 
then  that  the  case  was  serious,  and  the  end  not  far 
off.  He  told  me  of  some  things  about  the  students  he 
wished  me  to  attend  to.  Even  in  his  last  sickness  his 
thought  was  about  the  students,  whom  he  fondly 
called  "his  boys."  After  a  short  conversation,  and 
not  wishing  to  weary  him,  I  arose  to  depart.  As  I 
gave  him  my  hand,  he  took  it  between  both  of  his,  and 
with  an  expression  of  intense  affection  in  his  face,  and 
of  deep  pathos  in  his  voice,  he  pronounced  upon  me 
the  benediction:  "the  Lord  bless  thee  and  keep  thee; 
the  Lord  make  his  face  to  shine  upon  thee,  and  be 
gracious  unto  thee;  the  Lord  lift  up  his  countenance 
upon  thee,  and  give  thee  peace."  And  that  proved  to 
'be  his  dying  benediction.  On  the  14th  of  January, 
1885,  he  breathed  his  last.  On  hearing  of  his  death, 
my  first  impulse  was  to   utter  the   cry  of  Elisha,  "My 


i8 

Father,  my  Father,  the  chariots  of  Israel  and  the 
horsemen  thereof." 

When  the  Seminary  was  first  organized  I  was  still 
a  comparatively  young  man,  under  forty  years  of  age, 
and  not  very  well  known,  on  this  coast  at  least.  My 
colleagues  were  older  men,  of  much  wider  reputation; 
and  although  I  was  the  first  to  take  any  steps 
towards  the  establishment  of  the  Seminary,  it  was  na- 
tural and  proper  that  the  older  men  should  have  the 
precedence  in  carrying  on  the  work.  Especially  was 
this  true  of  Dr.  Scott,  who  was  widely  known 
throughout  our  church  and  in  Europe.  He  was  a 
man  of  extensive  attainments,  knowing  several  lan- 
guages, and  speaking  soine  of  them  with  ease  and  flu- 
ency. He  had  been  pastor  of  powerful  and  influential 
churches;  had  been  Moderator  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly in  1858,  and  published  a  number  of  books.  He 
was  a  great-hearted,  noble  man,  and  had  the  quality 
of  attaching  his  friends  to  him  "as  with  hooks  of 
steel."  We  all  loved  and  venerated  him.  Naturalh% 
and  without  self-assertion,  he  became  our  head  and 
leader,  and  was  our  most  influential  representative 
before  the  church  and  the  world.  His  heart  was  in 
his  work,  and  at  his  death  few  men  ever  left  more 
tangible  results  of  their  ministry  That  was  the 
darkest  hour  the  Seminary  ever  knew.  Only  two 
professors  remained.  Dr.  Burro wes  was  an  old  and 
infirm  man,  and  yet  he  kept  on  bravely  in  the  work 
of  his  department,  and  all  the  rest  fell  upon  me.  For 
a  time  I  taught  not  only  Church  History  and  General 
Introduction,  but  also  Systematic  Theology,  Homiletics 
and  the  Pastoral  Care,  and  Church  Government,  and 
preached  regularly  on  Sundays.  When  I  look  back 
upon  those  days  I  sometimes  wonder  that  I  am  alive. 

That  was  a  very  critical  time  in  the  history  of  tlio 
Seminary,  and  there  was  even  some  talk  of  closing  it; 


19 

bat  knowing  the  difficulty  of  regaining  confidence  in 
an  institution  that  had  once  failed  I  refused  to  hear 
of  it,  believing  then,  as  I  do  now,  that  if  it  had  once 
been  closed  no  man  then  living  would  have  seen  it 
opened  again.  We  went  on  in  this  way  until  December 
1, 1886  when  Rev.  Dr.  Thotnas  Fraser  was  elected  Stuart 
Professor  of  Systematic  Theology.  Dr.  Fraser  entered 
on  his  work  with  some  reluctance,  owing  to  advanced 
age  and  the  precarious  state  of  his  health.  By  way 
of  encouraging  him  I  agreed  to  take  part  of  his  work, 
temporarily,  until  he  should  be  able  to  undertake  the 
whole  of  it.  He  labored  diligently,  even  to  the  injury 
of  his  already  impaired  health,  and  was  taking  up 
more  and  more  of  the  work  of  his  chair,  until  the  first 
of  February,  1892,  when  he  resigned.  Dr.  Fraser  is 
endowed  with  intellectual  powers  of  a  very  high  order, 
and  had  he  devoted  his  life  to  study,  instead  of  that  of 
a  pioneer  home  missionary,  he  might  have  taken  a  high 
rank  among  the  scholars  of  the  church.  But  who  will 
venture  to  say  that  he  would  have  been  any  more 
honored  and  useful  than  he  has  been.  In  his  own 
quiet  way  he  has  been  of  immense  service  to  the 
church. 

On  March  16, 1886,Mr.  William  S.  Ladd  of  Portland, 
Or.,  offered  to  endow  a  chair  in  the  sum  of  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  on  condition  that  the  Presbyterians 
of  California  raise  another  fifty  thousand  dollars,  thus 
securing  to  the  Seminary  a  round  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  The  Directors  accepted  the  condition,  and 
succeeded  in  raising  the  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and 
secured  Mr.  Ladd's  fifty  thousand  dollars  on  the  first 
day  of  January  1887.  This  feat  was  accomplished 
mainly  through  the  indomitable  energy  and  ability  of 
Rev.  Arthur  Crosby,  assisted  by  Elder  R.  J.  Trumbull 
of  San  Rafael.  Mr.  Trumbull  was  first  sent  out,  and 
devoted  three  months  of  his  time  to  this  object.     Rev. 


Mr.  Crosby  rendered  very  efficient  service,  traveling  far 
and  working  hard,  so  that  before  tlie  first  of  January 
1887  they  were  able  to  announce  that  California  had 
met  the  condition,  and  secured  Mr.  Ladd's  donation. 
The  Seminary  now  had  endowments  to  the  amount  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  Mr.  Ladd  did 
more  than  he  promised;  he  paid  one  thousand  dollars 
annually,  out  of  respect  for  Dr.  Fraser,  while  he  con- 
tinued to  be  a  professor.  And  the  chair  he  endowed 
is  known  as  the  Ladd  Professorship  of  Practical  The- 
ology. To  fill  this  chair  Rev.  Dr.  A.  L.  Lindsley  of  Port- 
land was  nominated  and  elected  on  the  10th  of  August^ 
1886,  and  he  continued  to  fill  this  chair  until  his  life  was 
terminated  by  a  fatal  accident  on  the  9th  of  August, 
1891.  Dr.  Lindsley  was  a  man  of  great  and  command- 
ing influence  throughout  the  Northwest,  extending- 
even  to  Alaska,  and  his  loss  was  deeply  deplored. 
His  chair  was  filled  for  one  year  very  acceptably  by 
Rev.  J.  W.  Wheeler,  D.  D.      ^ 

Mr.  Nathaniel  Gray,  an  elder  in  the  First  Presby- 
terian church  in  San  Francisco,  on  the  4th  of  Febru- 
ary 1889  presented  to  the  Seminary  three  fifty -vara  lots, 
one  of  them  a  corner,  on  the  western  extension  of  Cali- 
fornia St.,  which,  in  the  course  of  time,  promise  to  be  of 
great  value.  This  was  not  Mr.  Gray's  only  benefaction ; 
he  had  already  given  liberally  toward  the  endowment 
of  the  California  chair.  He  was  a  benevolent  man^ 
of  sterling  integrity  and  worth,  beloved  by  all  who 
knew  him.  His  death  occurred  on  the  24th  of  April, 
1889,  and  his  memory  is  cherished  as  one  of  the 
benefactors  of  the  Seminary. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  the  Seminary  was 
seeking  a  new  location,  and  as  nothing  was  offered  in 
San  Francisco,  except  at  an  extravagant  price,  Mr. 
Arthur  W.  Foster  agreed  to  donate  the  Seminary 
Mound   property,   if  the  Seminar}^  wanted  it,  on  con- 


dition  that  improvements  costing  not  less  than  twenty 
thousand  dollars  should  be  erected  thereon  within 
two  years.  The  Seminary  did  want  it,  and  the  condi- 
tions were  accepted  on  the  24th  of  April,  1890.  I  had 
been  instructed  to  go  East  on  the  5th  of  January, 
1886,  and  after  three  months  of  the  hardest  kind  of 
work,  succeeded  in  raising  only  ten  thousand  dollars. 
The  condition  on  which  Mr.  Foster's  property  was 
accepted  rendered  it  necessary  to  raise  more  money. 
Nothing  had  yet  been  done,  when  Dr.  Mackenzie  met 
Mr.  Foster  on  the  ferry  boat  one  day,  and  had  some 
conversation  with  him  in  relation  to  the  matter.  The 
same  day  he  was  sent  for  b}^  Mr.  Montgomery,  and 
upon  mentioning  the  matter  to  him,  he  said  the 
amount  required  was  not  enough,  and  that  he  would 
give  fifty  thousand  himself  if  the  friends  of  the 
Seminar}'-  would  raise  fifty  thousand  more.  Dr. 
Mackenzie  at  once  sent  a  telegram  to  Mr.  Crosby  of 
the  amount  promised,  and  the  condition  on  which  it 
could  be  obtained.  The  whole  business  was  subse- 
quently reported  to  the  Board  of  Directors. 

The  offer  was  promptly  accepted  and  a  committee 
appointed  to  secure  the  required  fifty  thousand  dollars. 
Mr.  Crosby,  the  active  member  of  the  committee,  was 
sent  East  on  the  14t]i  day  of  April,  1889.  He  suc- 
ceeded in  raising  in  all  about  forty-four  thousand 
dollars.  The  remainder  of  the  fifty  thousand  was 
made  up  here.  In  this  wa}^  the  money  to  meet  Mr. 
Montgomery's  condition  was  secured. 

The  sum  of  thirty  thousand  dollars  was  set  apart 
to  endow  an  Instructorship  of  Sacred  Music  and  Vocal 
Culture,  to  which  Mr.  Charles  G.  Buck  was  elected, 
and  who  is  still  doing  that  work  in  a  very  satisfactory 
manner. 

Rev.  Thomas  F.  Day,  now  Rev.  Dr.  Day,  our 
excellent   Hebrew    Professor,   was   elected    to  a  full 


Professorship  on  the  15th  day  of  October,  1891,  after 
he  had  served  one  year  as  instructor  of  the  same,  and 
Dr.  Burrowes  was  made  Emeritus  Professor  on  half 
pay. 

It  has  been  noticed  that  when  a  man  once  enjoys 
the  luxury  of  doing  good  he  is  apt  to  continue  in  so 
doing.  Mr.  Montgomery's  condition  of  raising  fifty 
thousand  dollars  having  been  met,  under  the  advice 
and  influence  of  Dr.  Mackenzie,  he  sent  in  his  check 
for  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  on  Decem- 
ber 3d,  1889.  As  Dr.  Mackenzie  was  nominated  by 
Mr.  Montgomery  to  be  the  first  incumbent  of  the 
chair  of  Apologetics  and  Missions,  which  bears  Mr. 
Montgomery's  own  name,  he  was  elected  to  that  chair 
on  the  same  day  in  which  the  check  was  delivered, 
and  he  is  still  the  popular  incumbent  of  that  chair. 
But  Mr.  Montgomery's  benefactions  did  not  stop  here. 
On  the  12th  of  August,  1891,  he  gave  ten  thousand 
dollars  for  the  erection  of  Professors'  houses  on  the 
Seminary  property  ;  and  in  his  will  he  left  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars  for  the  erection  and  maintenance  of  the 
Montgomery  Memorial  Chapel,  and  made  the  Semin- 
ary his  residuary  legatee.  The  Chapel  was  finished 
and  dedicated  to  the  service  of  Almighty  God  on  the 
28th  of  April,  1897.  The  remains  of  our  largest 
benefactor  repose  in  the  tower  of  the  Chapel,  there  to 
remain  until  the  resurrection. 

Before  the  Seminary  had  received  Mr.  Mont- 
gomery's munificent  donations,  it  had  in  its  possession 
money  and  property  not  much,  if  any,  less  in  amount 
than  three  hundred  thousand  dollars.  And  the  credit 
for  securing  a  great  proportion  of  this  amount  is  due 
largely  to  the  zeal,  energy  and  persistency  of  Rev. 
Arthur  Crosby,  aided  by  such  efiicient  elders  as  Gray, 
Ladd  and  Trumbull.  Much  of  it  came  in  a  crisis  of 
our  history  ;  required  far  more  effbrt  to  raise  it  than 


23 

it   has  since,  and  was  the  essential  condition  of  our 
subsequent  financial  prosperity. 

Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Collin  Minton,  our  popular  and 
efficient  Professor  of  Systematic  Theology,  was  elected 
on  December  2d,  1891,  and  entered  on  the  duties  of 
his   chair  in  the  latter  part  of  February,  1892. 

In  the  month  of  August,  1892,  Rev.  "Warren  H. 
Land  on,  of  Portland,  was  elected  to  the  Chair  of 
Practical  Theology,  which  he  still  fills  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  all  concerned. 

Plans  for  the  buildings  known  as  Montgomery 
and  Scott  Halls  were  approved  on  the  24th  of 
April,  and  were  completed  and  dedicated  on  the 
21st  of  September,  1892.  The  money  was  given  for 
three  Professors'  houses  on  the  12th  of  August,  1891, 
and  they  were  ready  for  occupancy  in  May,  1892. 

Money  was  appropriated  to  build  another  house 
in  1895,  and  was  occupied  by  Dr.  Minton  in  November 
of  the  same  year. 

In  the  fall  of  1896, 'Rev.  John  H.  Kerr,  D.  D.,  was 
elected  Professor  of  New  Testament  Literature  and 
Exegesis,  and  is  proving  the  right  man  in  the  right 
place. 

Rev.  Dr.  Burrowes  who  had  been  Professor  of 
Hebrew  since  1871,  and  of  Old  and  New  Testament 
Exegesis  since  1876,  and  had  retired  as  Professor 
Emeritus  by  reason  of  age  and  its  infirmities  since 
1890,  passed  away  on  the  19th  of  April,  1894,  in  the 
84th  year  of  his  age.  Dr.  Burrowes  was  an  accurate 
scholar,  and  a  teacher  of  long  experience  and  great 
efficiency.  He  retained  the  love  and  veneration  of 
his  students  in  a  remarkable  degree.  Naturally,  of  a 
sensitive  and  irritable  temper,  divine  grace  had  so 
completely  triumphed  that  in  his  latest  years  he  was 
more    and    more    completelj^    transformed   into    the 


24 

imao-e  of  his  Master,  whom  he  loved  with  a  perfect 
devotion. 

And  now  after  the  lapse  of  a  quarter  of  a  century 
the  Seminar}^  has  an  ideal  site,  solid  and  substantial 
buildings  of  stone,  six  professorships  and  one  instruct- 
orship  endowed,  seven  scholarships  for  students  en- 
dowed, four  comfortable  houses  for  pr.ofessors;  and  we 
still  need  two  more  houses  tor  professors,  and  a  large 
number  of  scholarships  for  students.  In  looking  back 
over  the  last  twenty-five  years,  may  we  not  exclaim, 
"What  hath  God  wrought?"  Hard  work,  patient 
waiting,  and  self  denial  were  expected.  But  there 
was  another  thing  much  harder  to  endure  ;  there  was 
a  good  deal  of  detraction,  ridicule  and,  I  fear,  some 
contempt  which  the  first  professors  had  to  endure. 
We  bore  it  quietly  and  worked  on,  and  now  thank  God, 
we  have  got  beyond  all  that.  Our  Directors  have 
generally  been  wise,  kind  and  faithful  to  their  trusts. 
Our  students  have  gone  out,  often  into  the  hardest 
fields,  and  nearly  all  have  made  full  proof  of  their 
ministry.  They  are  enthusiastically  devoted  to  their 
Alma  Mater,  and  are  our  best  advertisement. 

San  Francisco  Theological  Seminary  has  always 
stood  for  a  whole,  unmutilated,  divinely  inspired  Bible, 
and  for  a  definite  theology,  as  contained  in  the  West- 
minister standards,  and  must  ever  remain  so,  or  lose 
her  propert}^  and  with  it  the  respect  of  mankind. 


25 


H  JForwarb  %oo\\. 


Address  by  ROBERT   MACKENZIE,   D.  D.,    Montgomery   Professor  of 
Apologetics  and  Missions. 

Our  Seminary  has  an  honored  past,  as  we  have 
just  heard.  In  hearing  that  past  rehearsed,  we  could 
wish  it  had  been  ours  to  have  had  a  share  in  making 
it.  But  the  Seminary  has  a  future,  and  what  the 
past  denies  to  us  who  have  come  too  Late,  the  future 
opens  to  our  energies  and  our  ambitions.  The  possi- 
bility is  offered  to  each  of  us  to  do  something,  if  not 
in  the  foundations  3''et  in  the  growing  super-structure. 
Bramante  re-Laid  the  foundations  of  St.  Peters,  yet 
Michael  Angelo  found  opportunity  to  work  out  his 
genius  and  to  work  in  his  fame  in  the  great  Cathedral. 

The  past  of  this  Seminary  is  yet  limited  both  in 
time  and  influence  ;  its  future  is  practically  unlimited 
in  both.  It  is  and  will  continue  to  be  the  central 
light  of  our  church  on  this  Pacific  Coast.  One  can  by 
no  means  outline  its  years  or  gauge  its  influence.  It 
must  be  apparent  to  the  most  casual  observer  that 
there  is  here  being  laid  the  foundations  of  a  new 
Empire,  and  that  in  the  midst  of  such  natural  circum- 
stances as  ensure  both  its  greatness  and  its  perma- 
nence. The  ocean  on  one  side,  the  mountain  range 
on  the  other  are  not  more  vast  and  enduring  than  the 
empire  thus  rising  between  them.  Our  Seminary  is 
an  integral  part  of  this  growing  community,  growing 
with  it  and  sharing  in  all  the  expansion  that  is  to  be. 
Cicero  was  asked  what  men  would  think  to-morrow 
of  what  he  had  written  that  day.  He  answered  that 
he  cared  but  little  what  men  would  think  on  that 
morrow,  what  he  did  care  for  was  what  men  would 
think  about  it  six  hundred  years  to  come.     We  do  not 


26 

look  at  this  Seminary  or  similar  institutions  from  the 
right  point  of  view  until  we  look  at  it  as  seen  at  the 
far  end  of  that  perspective  of  six  hundred  years  to 
come.  We  do  not  work  for  it  or  love  it  as  we  ought 
until  we  catch  some  glimpse  of  what  it  and  all  the 
institutions  of  this  Coast  are  yet  to  be.  We  do  well 
to  imitate  the  Hebrew  prophet  who  by  a  clever  use  of 
grammar  imagined  himself  looking  back  upon  events 
yet  far  m  the  future.  There  is  yet  to  be  seen  but  the 
seed,  the  seed,  however,  comes  from  a  mature,  a 
healthy  and  long-lived  plant.  Here  it  is  sown  in 
good  ground,  warmed  and  watered  by  the  sunshine 
and  rain  of  exceeding  great  and  precious  promises  and 
will  surely  become  partakers  of  its  mother  nature. 

A  wonderful  thing  is  a  seed; 

The  one  thing  deathless  forever; 
Forever  old  and  forever  new, 

And  fickle  and  faithless  never. 

That  future  of  this  Seminary  is  determined  by 
certain  conditions. 

First  by  the  spirit  of  loyalty  to  this  Coast  as 
such.  It  is  true  that  this  Coast  is  but  a  part  of  a 
common  Republic  of  States,  losing  itself  from  view  for 
a  time  in  the  one  great  sweep  of  land  between  sea  and 
sea.  And  that  itself  is  but  a  part  of  a  common 
Christendom  enveloping  the  globe.  Yet  this  Coast 
presents  a  sufficient  number  of  such  distinctive  quali- 
ties, and  develops  such  distinctive  opportunities  and 
needs  as  entitle  it  to  a  specific  loyalty.  By  virtue  of 
location  and  surroundings  it  can  become  all  that 
nature  has  made  possible  for  it  in  commerce,  in  poli- 
tics, in  art,  in  education  and  in  religion,  only  as  its 
inhabitants  shall  love  it  with  an  intense  affection  and 
serve  it  with  a  supreme  loyalty.  While  men  here 
glorify  Princeton,  Chicago,  Alleghany  or  Edinburgh 
the  growth  of  our  San  Francisco  Seminary  will  be 
slow.     But  when  our  alumni  will  fill  our  own  pulpits 


27 

and  direct  the  beneficence  of  our  own  sphere  it  will 
be  uplifted  and  glorified.  The  Seminary  is  what  it  is 
to-day  because  some  of  the  Fathers,  having  seen  some 
of  the  future  things  of  this  Coast  afar  off,  were  per- 
suaded of  them  and  embraced  them,  and  gave 
themselves  whole-heartedly  to  realize  them.  And 
truly  if  they  had  been  mindful  of  that  country  whence 
they  came  out  they  might  have  had  opportunity  to 
have  returned,  but  they  desired  a  better  country,  and 
so  gave  themselves  to  its  welfare,  as  if  they  too  had 
been  native  sons.  It  is  that  faith  in  and  affection  for 
this  coast  as  such  that  have  accentuated  the  streets 
of  our  cities  with  palaces  of  commerce,  that  have 
crowned  our  suburbs  with  Universities  equipped  to 
rival  their  fellows  hoary  with  years;  that  have 
planted  the  stirring  seeds  of  libraries,  of  galleries,  of 
philanthropic  benefactions  as  large  in  intent  as  if  here 
the  world  was  yet  to  find  its  throbbing  center.  Ob- 
serving the  evolution  already  manifest  on  these  shores, 
from  that  of  material  wealth  to  that  of  education,  to 
that  of  homes  of  beauty,  to  that  of  moral  order,  we 
need  not  doubt  that  the  development  will  continue 
until  it  blossoms  here  as  elsewhere  in  an  increased 
attention  to  religion  and  theology.  An  ivy  on  the 
north  side  of  a  wall  does  not  blossom  until  it  reaches 
the  eaves  and  the  sunlight,  but  the  blossom  is  in  the 
heart  of  it  throughout  the  years  of  upward  climbing. 
There  are  many  indications  that  we  are  rising  into 
warmer  air,  the  eaves  and  the  sunlight  may  not  be 
far  away. 

Second,  by  the  loyalty  to  the  standards  of  our 
church,  which  is  the  Bible,  and  to  the  subordinate 
standards,  which  is  our  confession  of  faith.  There  are 
some  things  settled  in  this  world.  The  thought  of 
man  has  not  been  empty  of  permanent  results  during 
these  centuries.     There  are  ascertained  principles  and 


28 


truths  which,  however  they  may  be  further  applied,  can 
never   be   further  revised.     The  arch  in  architecture, 
the  octave  in  music,  liberty  in  government,  are  incapa- 
ble of  revision  among  sane  men.     They  are  facts  to  be 
applied  but  not  to  be  revised.     Progress  is  safe  only 
as  it  proceeds  on  these  permanent  quantities.     Much 
more  is  it  the  case  that  when  God  has  spoken  certainty 
and  permanence  are  reached.     There  is  advance  in  the 
application  of  these  revealed  truths,  but  not  in  their 
essential  content.     It  is  a  good  thing  to  keep  up  with 
the  procession,   but  the  real  procession  is  not  always 
in  the  direction  in  which  the  most  dust  is  flying;  that 
depends  upon  what  popular  wind  is  blowing.     It  may 
be  the  head  wind  of  reactionary  rationalism;  then  the 
cloud  of  dust  moves  backward  while  the  real  procession 
is   forward.      It  may  be  crosswise  wind,  and  then  the 
dust  flies    to    right  and  left  while    the  procession  is 
moving  straight  ahead.       Thus,  there  are  those  who 
keep  right  on  their  ways,  and  those  that,  panting,  chase 
the  flying  dust    and  count  its    irritation  a  new  degree 
of  inspiration,  and  wrapped  in  the  Zeitgeist  bewail  the 
stubborn    conservatism    of    those    who    still  are  old 
fashioned  enough  to  walk  in  the  sunlight. 

This  world,  in  the  long  run,  appreciates  and  honors 
loyalty  to  accepted  standards.  This  world  needs  above 
all  other  things  that  loyalty  which  stands  steadily  by 
the  standard  of  the  revealed  Word  of  God.  In  this 
connection  there  are  three  classes  to  be  considered- 
first,  the  specialists — second,  the  teachers  who  weigh 
and  balance  the  findings  of  the  specialists,  who  test 
them  by  the  analogy  of  the  Faith,  who  bring  to  bear 
the  correlations  of  the  truth,  and  so  discover  the  over- 
plus of  imagination,  the  addendum  of  speculation;  and 
then  the  preacher  whose  aim  and  responsibility  are  to 
impart  that  truth  alone  which  has  been  tried  in  the 
fire  and   refined    as    the    refiner   fines    silver.       The 


29 


Seminary    occupies  the   position    of  the  second.     It 
stands  between  the  specialist  and  the  preacher,  with 
the  Word  of  God  in  its  hand.     And   with  the  history 
of  the  past,  and    the   findings  of  the  Masters  in  its 
vision,  and  with  the  discoveries    of  the  present  in  its 
ken,  it  sifts  them  and  tries  them  by  that  Word.     Loy- 
alty to  that  Word  is  the  very  motif  of  its  existence.    It 
becomes  an  impertinence  when  it  speaks  from  any 
other    Cathedra.      It   is  dishonest  in   its  use  of  the 
benefactions  of  Christian  donors  when  it  ceases  in  its 
loyalty.     The  permanent  usefulness  of  the  Seminary 
to  the  church  that  has  created  it  lies  in  its  loyalty  to 
the  Word  of  God,  on  which  alone  that  church  stands. 
Again,  the  future  of   the  Seminary  depends  upon 
its  supply  of  students.     The  source  of  supply  to  which 
we  first  look  is  our  native  hom.es  and  our  native  schools. 
It  is  encouraging  to  all  of  us  that  forty  per  cent  of  our 
present  students  are  from  that  native  source.      And  if 
the  number  is   limited    the   limitation  arises  not  from 
the  lack    of  desire   on    the  part  of  our  native  sons  to 
work  for  God  abundantly  in  the  gospel    ministry,  but 
from  the  conspicuous   lack   of  institutions  of  higher 
education  on  the  Coast  sufficiently  equipped  for'^the 
degree  of  preparatory  education  we  require  for  admis- 
sion to  the  Seminary. 

With  grateful  admiration  we  look  upon  the 
intelligent  army  of  young  people,  counted,  not  by  the 
hundred,  but  by  the  ten  thousand,  now  earnest  in 
Christian  Endeavor.  No  century  ever  closed  with  more 
hope  for  its  successor  than  this  nineteenth  century, 
with  these  young  spirits  kneeling  on  its  boundaries.' 
The  Fathers  of  the  church  never  passed  down  the 
torch  to  a  rising  generation  more  numerous,  more 
earnest  and  more  intelligent  in  this  faith  and  love  for 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It  stands  in  the  nature  of 
things  that  many  of  these  young  hearts  will  seek  the 


30 

opportunities  of  service  the  ministry  offers  ;  they  will 
also  seek  the  preparation  necessary  to  equip  them  for 
their  sacred  task,  and  will  find  no  college  on  this  Coast 
sufficiently  equipped  to  prepare  them,  because  the 
benefience  of  our  people  has  not  yet  risen  high  enough 
to  minister  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  their  children's 
souls.  I  am  by  no  means  indifferent  to  the  founda- 
tions already  laid.  I  am  keenly  appreciative  of  the 
students  our  schools  have  already  sent  to  our  halls, 
and  I  am  painfully  aware  of  the  self-denying  efforts 
they  have  made,  against  superhuman  odds,  to  accom- 
plish what  they  have;  but  I  look  with  a  great  longing 
to  see  them  the  recipients  of  that  beneficence  to  which 
they  are  pre-eminently  entitled  which  would  raise 
them  to  the  efficiency  they  desire,  and  which  would 
speedily  enable  them  to  fill  our  halls  and  your  pulpits 
with  the  best  of  our  native  sons. 

It  is  vain  for  us  to  look  to  our  State  schools  for  this 
supply.  By  an  almost  superhuman  wisdom  the  Fathers 
of  this  Republic  refrained  from  ordaining  any  State 
religion,  not  because  they  were  indifferent  to  all  reli- 
gion; bat  because  they  had  due  respect  to  the 
sacredness  of  conscience,  and  to  the  individual's  right 
to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own 
conscience.  To  interfere  with  that  conscience  was  the 
acme  of  treason  ;  and  for  a  State  institution  to  teach 
theology  or  religion  is  both  a  work  of  gratuitous 
supererogation,  and  a  violation  of  a  trust  committed 
as  to  honest  men.  And  where  a  State  University  is 
employed  to  teach  a  theology  or  a  religion,  it  is  by 
those  who  prefer  to  sponge  upon  the  common  taxpayer, 
rather  than  to  pay  for  the  propagation  of  their  own 
convictions.  In  no  land  has  oar  church  been  guilty  of 
this;  we  have  ever  had  the  courage  of  our  convictions, 
and  the  honesty  to  pay  for  their  maintenance.  We 
do  not  expect  our  State  institutions  to  do  this  for  us 


31 

on  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  with  equal  intensity  we  resent 
their  attempt  to  do  it  for  others. 

For  the  Cliristian  community  to  transfer  the  re- 
sponsibility of  Christian  education  to  State  institutions, 
is  to  put  a  premium  on  dishonesty;  to  tempt  ambi- 
tious men  to  dishonor,  and  to  commit  our  Davids 
"whom  God  has  anointed,"  to  the  Philistines.  There 
is  but  one  manly  and  honest  way  to  train  our  children 
in  the  faith  of  God,  and  our  chosen  sons  for  the  minis- 
try of  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  is  for  those  who  have 
faith  in  God  and  in  Jesus  Christ  to  endow  the  schools 
we  already  have,  and  elevate  them  to  the  plane  of 
Princeton,  of  Yale,  and  a  hundred  other  Christian  col- 
leges, Avhom  the  most  learned  of  our  countrymen  are 
proud  to  call  their  honored  mothers. 

Our  Seminary,  however,  does  now,  and  forever 
will  look  to  other  sources  for  many  of  its  students. 
The  prolonged  and  hard  study  required  by  our  church 
is  always  a  strain  upon  physical  health.  We  can  all 
recall  the  brilliant  minds  that  often  lead  our  classes, 
but  who  went  down  under  the  strain  of  climatic  con- 
ditions. Our  Seminary  is  so  uniquely  placed  as  to 
climate  that  men  who  would  succumb  in  more  vigorous 
weather  can  here  pursue  their  studies  with  health 
and  cheer  and  look  forward  to  prolonged  usefulness  in 
this  world.  This  has  been  repeatedly  illustrated  in 
our  history.  Such  men  have  come  to  our  halls  and 
are  among  our  more  robust  alumni  to-day.  Such  men 
will  come  in  greater  numbers  as  they  learn  what  only 
such  experience  makes  credible.  And  in  the  crowded 
East  there  are  heroic  spirits  who  seek  to  build  on  no 
man's  foundations  but  their  own,  who  look  to  the  far 
west  as  the  province  of  their  labors.  Many  of  these 
will  be  wise  enough  to  prepare  themselves  for  the 
ministry  among  the   people  to   whom  they  expect  to 


32 

minister.  Such  will  find  their  way  to  ns  and  be  pecu- 
liarly welcome. 

Once  more,  the  future  of  our  Seminary  will 
depend  upon  the  financial  support  we  can  offer  the 
young  men  by  way  of  scholarship.  Our  church 
requires  the  four  years  college  course  or  its  equivalent, 
and  then  the  three  years  Seminary  course.  In  the 
Seminary  we  ask  them  to  engage  in  preaching  not  at 
all,  or  as  little  as  possible.  This  is  necessary  to  secure 
to  them  the  intellectual  equipment  demanded  by  the 
intelligent  congregations  of  our  church,  but  it  pre- 
cludes the  possibility  of  self-support.  To  keep  to  this 
high  standard  our  older  Seminaries  have  been  endowed 
by  thoughtful  men  and  women  with  scholarships  to 
supplement  what  means  the  men  may  have  and  to 
enable  them  to  give  themselves  wholly  to  the  studies 
of  the  course.  Already  our  Seminary  has  been  thus 
remembered  in  a  limited  measure.  This,  I  take  it,  is 
the  one  pressing  need  foremost  in  the  front  in  this 
twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  our  existence.  The  one 
thing  at  the  present  moment  which,  if  supplied,  would 
double  the  number  of  our  students  at  the  opening  of 
the  next  term.  If  this  twenty-fifth  anniversary  could 
be  marked  by  the  gift  of  twenty-five  thousand  dollars, 
the  interest  of  which  could  go  in  this  direction,  we 
would  meet  the  beckoning  future  with  eager  steps,  and 
perpetuate  the  influence  of  the  donor  for  all  time  in 
that  highest  of  all  spheres  of  influence,  the  salvation 
of  immortal  souls  through  God's  appointed  way  of 
salvation,  the  foolishness  of  preaching. 

In  thus  forecasting  the  future  I  would  once  more 
remind  you  and  myself  of  its  past  and  those  who  made 
it.  When  they  erect  one  of  the  greater  buildings 
upon  our  streets,  they  leave  the  main  stones  of  the 
lower  courses  rough  and  unfinished;  when  the  struc- 
ture is  outwardly  complete,  the  scaffolding    removed, 


33 

and  there  is  no  more  danger  of  falling  debris,  they 
return  to  these  first  stones  and  carve  their  strenirth 
into  forms  of  beauty.  It  will  be  the  delight  of  future 
generations  to  remove  the  debris  and  dust  of  the 
foundation  period  of  this  Seminary,  and  carve  in 
forms  of  useful  beauty  the  memory  of  the  fathers 
who  are  its  corner  stones. 


35 


Conoratulatov)?  Hbbress. 


By    Rev.    GEO.     MOOAR,    D.    D.,     Professor    of    Apologetics,    Pacific 
Theological   Seminary. 

Nearly  three  years  ago,  on  the  occasion  in  our 
Seminary's  history  corresponding  so  exactly  with  this, 
we  received  through  your  appointed  representative 
generous  congratulation.  It  is  made  my  privilege  to 
reciprocate  the  fraternal  words  that  were  then  spoken. 
We  were  then  reminded  that  our  schools  have  the 
same  vocation,  that  is,  in  the  midst  of  an  intensely 
secular  civiJization,  to  maintain  the  high  realities  of 
christian  thought  and  life.  Nor  was  it  forgotten  that 
these  schools  stand  for  bodies  of  believers  that  have 
had  a  unique  historic  and  doctrinal  connection. 

It  should  seem  that  the  last  point  might  to-day  be 
brought  to  special  recollection  and  prominence.  For 
it  was  on  this  very  day  of  the  month  (29  Apr.  1647), 
250  years  ago  that  the  assembly  of  divines,  which  had 
been  convened  at  Westminister,  presented  to  the  Long 
Parliament  the  result  of  its  labors  in  the  justly  cele- 
brated confession  of  faith,  which  has  ever  since  borne 
to  you  the  charmed  name.  In  that  assembly,  side  by 
side  with  the  majority  of  assessors  and  divines,  who 
were  mostly  Presbyterian,  sat  a  very  small  company, 
often  spoken  of  as  "  the  five  dissenting  brethren", 
although  there  were  at  least  as  many  more  who  might 
have  been  included  in  the  same  expressive  designation. 
These  brethren  are  characterized  by  Hetherington,  an 
historian  whose  sympathies  were  with  the  majority, 
as  "  few  in  number  but  of  considerable  talent,  of  un- 
doubted piety,  of  great  pertinacity  in  adhering  to  their 
own  opinions,  and,   we  are  constrained  to  say,  well 


S6 

skilled  in  the  artifices  of  intriguing  policy."  The 
seraphic  Rutherford,  too,  calls  them  "  mighty  opposites 
of  Presbyterial  government."  But  writing  from  Lon- 
don which  was  alive  w4th  two-score  or  more  sects,  he 
describes  these  independents  "  as  those"  who  of  all 
that  differ  from  us  come  nearest  to  walking  with  God. 

This  little  knot  of  a  dozen  men  while  they,  no 
doubt,  after  the  common  fashion  of  small  but  pertina- 
cious minorities,  sometimes  delayed  the  proceedings  of 
those  who  outnumbered  them  tenfold,  nevertheless 
were  in  strong  accord  with  them  in  matters  of  Evan- 
gelical faith.  They  joined  in  the  confession.  Scarcely 
more  than  a  year  passed  before  the  Cambridge  Sj'^nod 
in  Massachusetts  adopted  it.  The  glorious  decade  of 
the  commonwealth  flew  fast  when  independency,  in- 
stead of  being  a  minority,  ruled  England,  but  at  Savoy 
these  dissenting  brethren  accepted  Westminister 
doctrine  with  marvellous  despatch.  At  the  end  of  a 
half  century  later,  it  was  made  part  of  the  Saybrook 
platform  in  Connecticut.  That  platform  reaffirmed, 
too,  the  "  Head  of  Agreement"  which  had  been  framed 
as  a  basis  for  union  in  those  years  of  persecution  when 
Independents  and  Presb3''terians  alike  suffered  for  non- 
conformity under  James  II.  This  substantial  unity  of 
doctrinal  conviction  was  the  motive  too,  for  that  plan 
of  union  in  our  own  country  at  the  opening  of  this 
19th  century.  There  have  been  those  in  both  camps 
who  have  been  tempted  to  call  this  a  plan  of  discord. 
But  there  was  a  noble  side  to  it.  Despite  the  friction 
incident  to  the  working  of  that  scheme,  it  w^as  the 
occasion  of  intellectual,  educational,  reformatory  and 
missionary  activit}^  unsurpassed.  Life,  certainlj^  theo- 
logical life,  in  the  two,  or,  perhaps  I  should  say,  three 
bodies  was  not  stagnant  in  that  half  century.  Were 
there  not  at  Princeton,  at  New  Haven,  at  Andover, 
giants  in    those   days  ?    Men    and  S3\stems  came  to  be 


37 

sharply  understood  ;  and  a  sharp  understanding  is 
quite  essential  to  a  really  good  understanding.  By 
reason,  then,  of  such  memorable  historic  connections 
we  have  come  to  know  more  exactly  our  mutual  metes 
and  bounds;  metes  and  bounds  which  show  as  well 
what  unites  as  what  divides  us. 

In  the  early  years  of  our  California  church  history, 
despite  the  fact  that  the  plan  of  union  was  passing 
away,  that  some  local  and  personal  irritants  existed 
here,  there  was,  as  there  has  continued  to  be,  much 
and  delightful  interchange  between  us.  There  were 
years  in  which  a  Synod  and  an  association  chose  to 
meet  at  the  same  place.  The  number  of  brethren  who 
had  exchanged  a  Congregational  relation  for  a  Presby- 
terian, or  a  Presbyterian  for  a  Congregational,  was 
noticeable;  as,  for  example,  both  earlier  and  later. 
Hunt,  Willey,  Lacy,  Durant,  Buel,  Brayton,  Seymour, 
Frear,  Mills,  Brodt,  Taylor,  McDonald,  Poor,  McLean, 
Horton,  and  the  list  might  be  extended. 

But  who  could  begin  to  name  the  laymen,  elders, 
deacons,  noble  women,  who,  without  losing  ancestral 
sympathies,  found  themselves  now  in  one  fellowship, 
and  now  in  the  other  ;  Billings,  Gray,  Goddard,  Bige- 
low.  Palmer,  Hawley,  McKee,  Cooper?  Nor  will  those 
of  us,  who  like  the  Shunamite,  have  dwelt  close 
within  our  own  people  without  changing  our  classifi- 
cations, as  Dr.  Cojde  calls  them,  be  willing  to  concede 
that  the  cords  of  this  interdenominational  brotherhood 
draw  us  au}^  less  strongly  together.  If  we  may  not 
plead  for  ourselves  the  distinction  made,  in  passing 
humor,  the  other  evening  by  one  of  your  own  faculty, 
that  we  were  ordained  to  the  one  body  and  fore- 
ordained to  the  other,  we  can  acquiesce  in  that 
milder  form  of  the  high  doctrine  that  we  have  been 
divinely  permitted  to  be  more  individual  than  some 
waves  are  and  yet  to  be  one  as  the  sea. 


38 

When  therefore  our  own  chui-chcs  were  moved 
some  thirty  years  ago  (1865)  to  devise  some  provision 
for  ministerial  training,  it  was  quite  in  the  spirit  of 
the  old  amity  that  enquiry  was  made  whether  it  were 
feasible  and  desirable  to  try  to  secure  co-operation  in 
this  undertaking.  Ministers  supposed  to  be  represent- 
atives in  the  several  principal  denominations  were 
approached.  The  responses  were  kindly  but  not 
encouraging.  Later,  in  1873,  after  your  Seminary 
organization  was  commenced,  our  Trustees  appointed 
a  committee  to  confer  with  your  Board  as  to  whether 
it  might  be  possible  to  provide  for  common  instruction 
in  some  departments.  This  suggestion  did  not  com- 
mend itself,  and  each  institution  went  its  own  way, 
each  to  have  a  day  of  small  things  in  hope  of  a  larger 
morrow. 

Nor  has  that  hope  been  disappointed.  This 
quarter  century  has  brought  to  us  both  quite  as  much 
enlargement  as  reasonable  people  had  any  reason  to 
expect.  If  there  have  been  delays  and  struggles  or 
even  crises,  surprises  have  struck  in  also  of  human 
bounty  and  Providential  favor.  We  rejoice  in  all  that 
favor  which  has  fallen  to  your  lot.  We  carry  pleasant 
pictures  of  the  goodly  home  you  have  acquired  in  your 
quiet  valley,  in  sight  of  the  mountain  and  its  wooded 
foothills.  We  have  learned  to  appreciate  both  the 
scholarship  and  the  society  of  those  who  have  been 
called  to  fill  the  chairs  of  instruction  there.  If  so  be 
that  your  type  of  polity  holds  you  with  any  stricter 
tenacity  to  the  formulas  of  the  confession  ;  or  if  ours 
facilitates  those  revisions  which  like  some  eastern 
spring  come  more  slowly  up  your  way,  yet  we  would 
fain  be  reckoned  as  next  of  kin  in  our  reverent  and 
loyal  interpretation  of  the  one  divine  word  from 
which  the  Assembly  of  Divines  drew  their  distinctive 
system.     We  may  fitly  then,  and  in  exceptionally  good 


faith,  use  the  quaint  phrases  of  the  pastor  at  Anworth 
who  sat  in  that  assembly,  when  we  express  our  prayer 
that  your  Seminary  may  continue  to  be  a  "  Lebanon 
out  of  which  may  be  taken  many  cedars  for  the  build- 
ing of  the  house  of  God  throughout  the  land." 


Xetters  trom  3fnent)s 
mnable  to  be  iPresent 
on  tbe  *S)ccasion 


42 

Theological  Seminary 

of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 

at  Princeton.  N.  J. 


To  the  Faculty  of  the  San  Francisco  Theological   Seininary: 

Dear  Brethren — The  Faculty  of  Princeton  Seminary  have  in- 
structed me  to  thank  you  for  the  kind  invitation  extended  to  us  to  be 
present  at  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  your  institution. 
Although  the  distance  forbids  our  personal  presence  on  that  occasion, 
we  rejoice  most  cordially  with  you  in  the  prosperity  of  your  Seminary  and 
in  the  blessings  which  have  been  sent  upon  it  in  the  past  and  through  its 
labors  have  come  to  the  Church.  To  our  congratulations  we  add  the  wish 
that  even  greater  success  than  this  may  attend  your  work  in  the  future, 
and  that  the  Lord  may  make  your  Seminary  in  ever  increasing  degree  a 
center  for  the  propagation  of  His  truth  and  the  upbuilding  of  His  kingdom. 
By  order  of  the  Faculty  of  Princeton  Theological  Seminary. 

GEF.RHARDUS  VOS, 
Corresponding  Clerk. 
April  26,   1897. 


Princeton-,  April  15,  '97. 
To  the  Faculty  of  the  San  Francisco  Seminary : 

I  send  my  congratulations  on  the  completion  of  twenty-five  years  of 
usefulness  of  the  Theological  Seminary  at  San  Francisco,  and  trust  that 
it  will  increase  in  prosperity  and  power  as  years  go  on.  I  regret  that  I 
shall  not  be  able  to  be  present  on  the  approaching  anniversary. 

Yours  Very  Truly, 

WM.  HENRY  GREEN. 

per  E. 


The  Old  Hodge  House,  Princeton.  N.  J.,  April  25,  1897 
To  the  Faculty  of  the  San  Francisco  Theological  Seminary. 

My  Dear  Sirs — I  beg  to  acknowledge  your  kind  invitation  to  be 
present  at  the  approaching  celebration  of  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary 
of  the  foundation  of  the  San  Francisco  Theological  Seminary,  and  to  ex- 
press my  deep  interest  in  the  occasion  and  my  regret  that  the  distance 
precludes  my  expressing  it  in  tlie  natural  way  of  being  present  at  the  cere- 
mony. It  was  a  brave  and  far  seeing  act  of  the  little  band  of  Presbyter- 
ians on  the  Western  coast,  twenty-five  years  ago,  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a 
o-reat  school  of  theological  learning:  an  act  of  faith  which  lam  assured 
God  will  not  permit  to  fail  of  attaining  its  end  with  completeness.  In 
these  days  of  your  prosperity  you  look  back  twenty-five  years  to  compara- 
tively small    beginnings:  may  you  after  another   quarter  of  a  century   be 


43 

able  to  look  back  to  your  present  prosperit}'  as  equally  small^beginnings  to 
the  attainment  then  registered.  I  congratulate  the  San  Francisco  Semi- 
nary on  the  work  it  has  done;  on  the  position  of  influence  it  has  achieved; 
on  the  noble  men  who  have  served  it  during  the  past  quarter  of  a  century 
of  its  existence;  on  the  devoted  and  competent  men  wfho  have  filled  its 
chairs  of  instruction;  on  the  good  it  is  ever  doing,  and  on  the  great  and 
rich  prospects  of  increased  usefulness  which  are  opening  out  before  it. 
May  the  Lord  whom  you  serve,  bless  you  richly;  give  you  ever  a  band  of 
consecrated  and  capable  teachers;  and  make  you  a  blessing  not  only 
to  your  own  coast,  but  to  our  whole  church  and  land,  and  to  the 
wide  world  which  encompasses  us  all  and  provides  the  only  limits  of  the 
field  which  the  Master  bids  us  occupy  and  cultivate. 

I  am,  my  dear  sirs,  in   the  bonds  of  a   common  work,    and  a  common 
hope, 

Very  Sincerely  Yours, 
B.  B.  WARFIELD. 


Prof.  Wm.  Brenton  Greene,  Jr.  D.  D.,  regrets  that  he  cannot  accept 
the  courteous  invitation  of  the  Faculty  of  the  San  Francisco  Theological 
Seminary  to  be  present  at  the  exercises  of  the  twenty-fifth  Anniversary  of 
the  foundation  of  their  Seminary. 

Princeton,   April  15,  1897. 


316  Ridge  Ave,  AlIvEGHany,  Pa.,  April  20,  1897. 
Rev.  Henry  C.  Minton,  I).  D.: 

My  Dear  Bro. — In  behalf  of  the  Faculty  of  Western  Theological 
Seminary  I  return  thanks  for  the  invitation  to  attend  the  quarter  century 
anniversary  of  your  Seminary.  We  invoke  upon  your  Institution  the  con- 
tinued and  enlarging  favor  of  God,  and  the  good  will  of  men. 

If  you  will  postpone  for  a  little  time  your  celebration  a  representative 
of  our  Seminary  might  be  present,  as  Mrs.  Robinson  and  I  hope  to  be  in 
California  by  the  fifteenth  of  May,  for  an  outing  of  a  few  weeks. 

Yours    Sincerely, 

T.  H.  ROBINSON. 


Union  Theological  Seminary, 

NO.    700    PARK    AVENUE. 


New  York,  April,  17,  1S97. 
TJip  Rev.   Warren  H.  Landon,  D.  D.,  Secretary,  San  Rafael,  California. 

Dear  Sir — On  behalf  of  the  Faculty  of  Union  Theological   Seminary 
permit  me  to  thank  the   Faculty  of  the  San    Francisco   Theological  Semi- 


44 

nary  for  the  courteous  invitation  to  be  represented  at  their  twenty-fifth  An- 
niversary on  the  29th  instant.  We  would  gladly  accept  your  invitation 
were  it  possible  for  us  to  do  so,  but  we  can  only  send  our  fraternal  con- 
gratulations with  the  prayer  that  you  may  have  a  long  history  of  continued 
prosperity  and  usefulness. 

Yours   Truly, 

THOS.  S.  HASTINGS, 
President. 


Lane  Theological  Seminary, 

CINCINNATTI. 


The  Faculty  of  L,ane  Theological  Seminary,  congratulates  the  Faculty 
of  the  San  Francisco  Theological  Seminary  on  the  occasion  of  their  twenty- 
fifth  Anniversary. 

VVe  regret  that  no  one  of  our  number  is  able  to  be  present  at  the  anni- 
versary exercises  in  person.  We  pray  that  your  Seminary  may  continue 
to  be  a  corner  stone  of  the  Western  Church. 

In  behalf  of  the  Faculty, 

KEMPER   FULLERTON, 

Chairman. 

Cincinnati,  April  23,  1897. 


Danville  Theological  Seminary. 


Danville.  Ky,  April  23,  1897. 

To  the  Faculty  of  San  Francisco  Theological  Seminary: 

Dear  Brethren — The  Faculty  of  the  Danville  Theological  Seminary 
acknowledge  with  gratification  the  reception  of  your  invitation  to  attend 
the  Twenty-Fifth  Anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  Seminary  at  San 
Francisco.  Being  just  at  and  during  the  closing  exercises  of  our  Seminary 
we  regret  we  cannot  send  one  of  our  numbers  to  convey  in  person  our  con- 
gratulations and  good  wishes.  But  please  accept  the  assurances  of  our 
hearty  good  will  and  siiicerest  wishes  for  your  prosperity  and  usefulness. 

On  behalf  of  Faculty, 

J.  M.  WORRALL, 

President. 


45 
German  Theological  Seminary. 


DUBUOUE,  III.,  April  23,  r897. 

To   the  Faculty  of  the.   San   Francisco  Theological  Seminar >/  of  the  Presby- 
terian church: 

Dear  Brethren — On  behalf  of  our  faculty  and  for  myself  personally 
permit  me  to  extend  to  you  our  most  hearty  congratulations  and  best 
wishes  in  view  of  your  celebration  of  your  Twenty-Fifth  Anniversary  as 
a  Seminary;  to  be  appropriately  observed  on  the  29th  of  the  present  month. 
Only  distance  prevents  our  presence  with  you  on  that  happy  occasion.  We 
shall  however  respond  to  your  fraternal  invitation  by  being  present  in 
spirit.  Truly  God  has  placed  His  seal  of  approval  on  the  judgment  and 
self-sacrificing  labors  which  initiated  the  Presbyterian  Theological  Semin- 
ary of  San  Francisco  in  1872. 

These  have  been  creative  years.  This  quarter  of  a  century  has  been 
marked  by  success,  not  only  in  the  development  of  the  idea,  but  also  in  find- 
ing for  it  a  becoming  material  expression  in  the  great  financial  resources 
at  your  command.  Already  your  Seminary  gives  evidence  that  it  shall  be 
the  Princeton  Seminary  of  the  Pacific  coast.  Permit  me  to  add  that  I  have 
a  special  interest  in  the  success  of  your  institution  because  of  its  close  asso- 
ciation with  my  dear  old  friend,  Doctor  William  Scott,  for  whose  memory 
I  entertain  the  profoundest  respect.  That  all  your  Faculty  may  see  ever 
growing  prosperity  in  your  work  is  the  earnest  wish  of 

Yours   Truly, 

ADAM   MCCLELLAND. 


Park  College, 

PARKVILLE,    MO. 


19th  April,  1897. 

Dear  Sir — Allow  me  to  extend  to  the  San  Francisco  Seminary  my 
hearty  congratulations  upon  the  25th  anniversary.  The  record  of  the  years 
has  been  an  excellent  one,  and  the  church  looks  hopefully  to  the  Seminary 
for  the  future.  For  my  part,  I  have  no  hope  that  you  will  turn  out  mere 
scholars  or  men,  who  will  forget  that  the  winning  and  cure  of  souls  is  their 
one  business.  There  is  room  in  the  church  for  pastors  who  can  preach  to 
hearts,  and  preachers  who  can  shepherd.  Much  depends  on  the  point  of 
view  for  study.  Church  history,  from  the  pastoral  side,  is  more  helpful  to 
most  pastors  than  from  the  critical  side.  So  with  Greek  exegesis  and 
Hebrew.  You  will  do  a  great  work  if  the  pastoral  element  is  kept  large  and 
prominent,  and  I  shall  be  glad  if  the  Lord  leads  the  Seminary  so  to  do. 

Our  men  have  been  enthusiastic  in  their  praise  of  the  Seminary  and 
the  wise  men  who  are  its  faculty. 

Very  sincerely, 

CLELAND  B.  McAFEE. 


46 

University  of  Wooster, 

PRESIDENTS    OTFICE. 


Wooster,  Ohio,  April  19th,  1S97. 
To  the  Faculty  of  the.  San  Francisco  Presbyterian  Theological  Seminary,  San 
Francisco,  Cal. 

Dear  Brethren — I  acknowledge,  with  pleasure,  the  reception  of  your 
courteous  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  celebration  of  the  twenty-fifth 
anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  Theological  Seminar}'. 

Without  a  section  of  Aladdin's  carpet,  my  presence  in  the  body  will 
be  impossible.  But  that  need  not  prevent  my  being  present  with  you 
"joying  and  beholding  your  order."  How  short  the  time  seems  since  the 
beginning,  and  how  vividly  I  recall  the  stalwart  figure  of  Dr.  Scott.  We 
have  all  rejoiced  in  the  work  which  the  Seminary  has  been  accomplishing, 
and  from  the  first  it  commanded  my  enthusiasm  as  an  enterprise  in  the 
line  of  the  declaration  of  the  mental  independence  of  the  middle  and 
greater  West.  Our  education,  whether  academic  or  professional,  must  not 
cling  to  the  Eastern  seaboard. 

May  the  coming  quarter  of  a  century  be  filled  with  evidences  of  Divine 
benediction  in  the  continuance  of  the  staunch  steadfastness  of  the  past,  in 
growing  spiritual  power,  in  enlarged  patronage,  and  increased  facilities. 
This  is  the  greeting  of  an  institution  like  your  own,  thoroughly  attached 
to  the  church  and  the  faith  of  our  fathers,  and  only  two  years  older  than 
your  own. 

Yours  sincerely, 

SILVESTER  F.  SCOVEL. 


PRESIDENT'S    OFFICE, 

Wabash  College. 


Crawpordsvillk,  Tnd.,  April  21,  1897. 

Tfie  Faculty,  Presbyterian  San  Francisco  Theological  Seminary,  San  Fran- 
cisco, California  : 
Dear  Brethren — Please  accept  the  hearty  congratulations  of  Wabash 
College,  on  the  completion  of  the  first  quarter  century  of  work  of  your 
admirable  institution.  May  the  next  twenty-five  years  bring  to  you  much 
advance  in  usefulness  and  large  accession  of  influence. 

I  wish  that  it  might   be   possible   for   our  institution  to  be  represented 
at  your  anniversary. 

Believe  me,  with  much  respect, 

Sincerely  yours, 

G.  S.  BURROUGHS,  Pres. 


47 


EDITORIAL    ROOMS 

KOMILETIC  REVIEW, 

I.  K.  Funk,  D.  \).,  I,.  L.  d. 
D.  S.  Gre(;c)rv,  D.  I).,  L.  L.  D. 
Editors. 


Nkw  York,  April  15,  1897. 
To  the  Faculty  of  the  San  Francisco  Theological  Seminary,  San  Anselmo,  Cal. : 
Dear  Brethren— Allow  me  to  acknowledge  with  gratefnl  pleasure 
your  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  exercises  of  the  twenty-fifth  anniver- 
sary of  the  foundation  of  the  San  Francisco  Theological  Seminary  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  to  be  held  in  San  Francisco,  April 
29th, 1897. 

It  would  give  me  great  pleasure  to  be  present  if  it  were  p6ssible,  and  to 
rejoice  with  you  in  your  joy.  Some  of  my  life-long  friends  have  been 
connected  with  yonr  institution.  Dr.  Burrowes,  that  royal  Hebrew 
scholar,  I  knew  when  he  was  in  Lafayette  College  ;  Dr.  Lindsley,  that 
grand  preacher  and  organizer,  examined  me  when  I  was  licensed  to 
preach  the  gospel ;  Dr.  William  Alexander,  who  is  still  spared  to  carry  on 
his  good  work,  was  one  of  my  Seminary  mates  and  most  intimate  friends 
in  the  old  Princeton  days.  These  are  only  a  part  of  your  faculty,  past  and 
present,  that  I  claim  among  my  special  friends.  For  the  sake  of  those 
who  are  gone,  as  well  as  for  the  -sake  of  those  who  are  left,  it  would  be 
exceedingly  pleasant  to  be  with  you,  and  to  get  a  little  inspiration  for  my 
own  work  from  your  Pacific  breezes. 

Trusting  that  you  will  have  a  delightful  occasion,  and  that  some  one 
will  come  forward  to  add  materially  to  your  endowment,  in  order  to  make 
the  work  of  the  next  quarter  century  more  eflfective,  I  remain. 
Yours  m  the  service  of  the  Master, 

DANIEL  S.  GREGORY. 


Idaho  Christian  Endeavor  Union, 

REV.    J.    hT.    BARTON,    PRES 


Cai^dwell,  Idaho,  Apr.  26,  1897. 
Rev.  H.  C.  Minton,  D.  ]).,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

Dear  Bro. — Yours  enclosing  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  exercises 
of  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  the  San  Francisco 
Theological  Seminary  is  at  hand.     Accept  thanks  for  the  same. 

We  are  trying  to  build  up  a  little  college  here  which  we  hope  may 
become  a  feeder  for  the  San  Francisco  Seminary. 

Very  sincerely  and  fraternally  yours. 

J.  H.  BARTON. 


48 

Philadelphia  Pa.,  April  25,  1897. 
My  Duar  Dr.  Day — I  have  received  tlie  very  courteous  invitation  to 
be  present  at  the  coming  celebration  at  the  San  Francisco  Theological 
Seminary.  I  send  my  heartiest  greetings,  and  wish  I  could  be  present  in 
person  to  deliver  them.  We  appreciate  the  work  you  are  doing.  We 
rejoice  in  your  prosperity.  We  pray  for  its  increase.  And  you  may  be 
sure  that  the  Board  of  Education  will  always  be  glad  to  co-operate  with 
you  in  the  noble  work  of  training  ministers  to  preach  the  glorious  gospel 
of  the  blessed  God. 

I  am  very  cordially  yours, 

EDWARD  B.  HODGE, 
Cor.  Sec'v  of  Board  of  Education. 


The  Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Pres.  Church 

in  theUuiteil  States  of  Ameriea. 

186    FIFTH    AVE.,     NEW    YORK 


April  23,  1S97. 
San  Francisco  Theological  Seminary,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

Dear  Brethren If  it  were  not  for  the  three  thousand  miles  dis- 
tance between  New  York  and  San  Francisco,  1  should  be  glad  to  attend 
the  25th  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  your  noble  institution. 

I  knew  intimately,  its  honored  and  distinguished  founder,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Scott,  and  I  knew,  as  very  fewmen  knew  him,  Mr.  Alexander  Montgomery, 
who  endowed  it  so  largely,  and  it  affords  me  great  pleasure  to  say  that  I 
know  slightly  all  the  present  Professors,  and  some  of  them  very  well.  I 
am  satisfied  that  that  Seminary  is  only  beginning  to  exert  its  great  in- 
fluence ;  it  is  destined  to  do  a  grand  work  for  our  church  on  the  Pacific 
Coast.     May  the  Lord  bless  the  exercises  on  the  29th  of  April. 

Yovirs  fraternally, 

WM.  C.  ROBERTS. 


First  Presbyterian  Church, 

ENGLEWOOD,     NEW    JERSEY. 


The  Faculty  of  the  San  Francisco  Theoluyical  Seminary. 

My  Dear  Brethren — It  is  really  a  matter  of  regret  that  I  cannot 
come  to  the  anniversary  on  the  29th.  Your  invitation  lies  on  my  table, 
and  up  from  its  face  rises  the  thought  of  my  father's  interest  in  the  Semin- 
ary's welfare  and  promise.     Many   sad  memories  come  trooping,  but  with 


49 

tbem  are  the  brighter  children  of  the  successes  of  these  twenty-five  years. 
I  can  recall  the  evenings  when  father  would  return  to  our  house  in  the 
opposite  foothills,  weary  and  sober  with  his  teaching  the  classes  of  the 
Seminary  ;  I  can  recall,  also,  the  light  of  modest,  honest  pleasure  when  he 
could  tell  us  of  some  new  gift  which  he  had  been  able  to  influence  toward 
its  endowment. 

He  had  small  sympathy  or  liking  for  theological  dialecticians,  or  wish 
to  increase  their  race  ;  but  men,  charged  to  the  full  with  God,  and  God's 
greatest  truth  ;  men,  sympathetic,  cultured,  helpful ;  men,  in  manhood's 
fine  completeness,  he  sought  to  fit  for  their  ministering.  Because  he  be- 
lieved the  San  Francisco  Seminary  could  give  such  men  to  their  much 
needed  service  in  California,, he  spared  no  pains,  no  pra3'ers,no  labor  in  its 
behalf.  How  glad  he  would  be  to  join  in  this  anniversary.  Knowing 
.which,  it  is  a  pleasure  to  me  to  add  his  congratulations  to  my  own,  bidding 
you  God  speed  into  an  immeasureably  larger  and  better  future  of  usefulness 
and  power. 

With  respect,  I  am,  always,  very  truly  yours, 

JAMES  EEIvS. 
April  22,  1S97. 


PhiIvADELPHIa,  Pa.,  April  20th,  '97. 

Mr.  R.  J.  Trumbull. 

My  Dear  Brother — Nothing  could  please  me  more  than  to  be 
present  upon  the  occasion  of  the  quarter  centennial  of  the  San  Francisco 
Theological  Seminary.  I  hope  and  believe  that  the  incoming  twenty-five 
years  shall  work  an  evolution  in  your  affairs  of  great  moment.  They  will 
work  a  great  evolution  in  the  direction  of  truer  Biblical  sentiment,  of  a 
more  elevated  and  Evangelical  type  of  thought  upon  religious  matters, 
upon  your  Coast.  The  progress  in  this  particular,  during  the  past  twenty- 
five  years,  is  wonderful.  The  unfolding  bud  has  not  yet  bloomed  into  full 
beauty. 

With  your  endowments  and  buildings,  with  your  able  and  earnest 
Faculty,  you  are  fully  equipped  to  take  "  opportunity  by  the  forward  top" 
and  do  a  grand  work  for  the  great  empires  of  California  and  Oregon  and 
the  far  North. 

I  am,  cordially  yours, 

FRANCIS  A.  HORTON. 
Temple  Presbyterian  Church,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


Pasadena,  Cal.,  April  24,  1897. 

Mr.  R.  J.  Trumbull,  ISan  Francisco. 

Dear  Bro. — I  am   in    receipt  of  a  formal  invitation  from  the  Faculty 
of  the  San  Francisco  Theological  Seminary  to  tho  25th  anniversary  of  the 


founding  of  the  same.     I  wish  to  express   my   sincere  regrets  at  not  beirp- 
able  to  be  present. 

It  really  pains  me  that  the  great  distance  and  the  changes  of  20  years 
have  at  last  accomplished  the  inevitable,  made  me  feel  as  a  stranger. 
Most  of  those  dear  to  me  are  now  silent.  I  would  that  I  could  meet  those 
of  you  left. 

Very  sincerely  your  Bro., 

WILIvIELL  THOMSON. 

( Au  early  eraduate  of  the  Seminary.) 


Union  Theological  Seminary, 

HAMPOEN-SIONCY,     VA. 

Hampden-Sidney,  Va.,  April  27th,  1897. 

To  the  Faculty    of  the  San  Francisco  Theological    Seminary,  Saii  Francisco, 
California: 

Dear  Brethren — The  Faculty  of  Union  Theological  Seminary  in 
Virginia  beg  to  acknowledge  with  thanks  your  invitation  to  attend  the 
exercises  of  the  tw^enty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  your  Institu- 
tion. While  the  privilege  of  a  personal  attendance  is  denied  us,  we  desire 
hereby  to  extend  to  you  our  most  cordial  congratulations,  and  to  ex- 
press our  warm  interest  in  the  future  of  your  institution. 

Fraternally  Yours, 

T.  R.  ENGLISH, 
Clerk  of  Faculty. 


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